Personal Trainer Marketing




What Did You Add to Your Website This Week?

Does your website give to others or does it glorify you?

Does your website give to others or does it glorify you?

Ok this post is a very simple idea, but it can easily save you thousands of dollars otherwise spent on advertising in the next year or make those thousands of dollars far more productive. After reviewing a number of personal training websites it’s clear that many of the trainers in Canada need to understand how valuable their website is and why they need to add content more often.

When did you last add content to your website? Was it a day ago, a week, a month? It’s critically important you regularly add more valuable content to your website at least weekly. By content I don’t mean adding a new picture of yourself or updating your services but rather information that answers the questions of your potential readers and hopefully prospects.

You see the only people that care about your service changes, new photos or other items of this nature are already your customers. As I’ve mentioned in other posts the best way to attract many new prospects to your website is by providing information your prospects are searching for in Google and the other search engines right now.

Now the question is what do you write about this week?

Well here’s what I sometimes do, I’ll go to Google and type in something like ‘Latest Fitness News’ and then visit a few of the results sites like MSNBC, CNN or CTV. You see a wise person once told me that if you want to really position yourself as an expert in your community, and quickly, then follow the coattails of other experts.

Chances are if it’s been talked about on CNN a local radio station might talk about it in their morning show segment, a local news channel may also feature this topic and undoubtedly a co-worker or friend will be excited about it and share the news. All of these situations now send other people to the almighty Google because they too want to know more.

So if you are writing about the same things as these so called experts and share this with people in any way you can; you come across as doubly smart when they hear these same words from local and global media.

Now if you are writing these types of articles for your website I do suggest a couple of things that just may improve your search rankings. Include your location and key content words in title and again in the first paragraph. Example, if I were writing about the benefits of carrots my title might be something like: A Personal Trainer in Red Deer Exposes the True Benefits of Carrots. And then my article might start with: Cabel McElderry, a personal trainer in Red Deer, believes there are many great benefits to carrots such as…

By writing my article in this format I have added some simple optimization. Google now has a setting to remember where you are geographically and can find relative local content for you. Additionally as your credibility grows people may begin to search for your name also so it never hurts to include it. The key words for the topic you’re writing on are critical as we know these words are going to have a high search volume thanks to the media.

Start by posting something new once per week and work toward multiple times per week. It only gets easier and easier and you will see your website traffic growing exponentially in no time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure if you are using my strategy that you do work hard to write your own content, any plagiarism will not only destroy your credibility in a heartbeat but these days duplicate internet content is quickly detected by search engines and your whole website may be delisted as a result.




What does Doggy Daycare have to do with Personal Training?

What does Doggy Daycare have to do with Personal Training?
What does Doggy Daycare have to do with Personal Training?

Last night my wife and I went to visit some really good friends of ours, they are solid gold the kind of people that would drive a hundred miles to help you in a snow storm just because. In fact when we first opened One-to-1 Fitness they put in countless hours with us on a volunteer basis just fixing the place up to finally get the doors open. Now nearly two years ago they took the big step to also open their own business. They are not personal trainers or even in the same industry. I have never met anyone more passionate about and better with animals, they began with sincerity, passion and a dream, a true foundation for success…they own a doggy daycare and provide pet supply and dog boarding.

Now here’s the really cool part, based on their natural affinity for animals they established their business with their sincerity alone but as growth has slowed it’s time to develop and learn to market the business to continue their stream of growth.

Now here is the really cool part, during our visit we began to discuss some ideas and quickly came to agree that most (if not all) the things I am telling you to do can be easily adapted to their business.

They asked me what little things they could do to really increase business.  I started by looking at their website and plunking a few searches in Google. Now because I know many of you are in the same place with a very basic website this will be really useful for you too so I decided to post their ‘to-do’ list for you also.

First how do people find your website? Punch in a few keywords and phrases into Google and see if you can find your website on the first or second page. Keep a list of all of, what you think, would be the most likely words or phrases to find your business. Now here’s what you do in order of importance:

 1) If you haven’t already, sign up for and download my free report, there is so much great step-by-step knowledge in here.

2) If you have a website (or if you don’t) and it’s not a blog look at www.wordpress.com and consider changing your website to a blog. Blogs are incredibly versatile, adaptable, super easy to manage and search engines love them. (About as hard as writing an email.) There are many free wordpress themes to choose from and when the time is right I can refer you to someone who can do a custom theme and really make it shine. (However more importantly would be to first buy optimized content which you can for about $5 US a page, 20-40 pages will drastically improve search term rankings, in fact I bet it would begin paying for itself in mere days.)

3) Buy a few keyword domains, for instance one of the high ranking search terms I use to find people like yourself is ‘Personal Trainer Certification’, you’ll notice if you type in www.ProfitablePersonalTrainerCertification.com you will end up right back here. Key word domains, any words or phrases someone would type in google to search for your business. Point these to your website; this is another inexpensive way I have gained local first page listings. If you live in a big city with multiple regions within your drive radius you can even buy a few domains that might allow those in neighbouring regions to find you a little easier.

4) Your page title, right now what does it say in the top right corner? If like my poor friends it says ‘Home’, change this ASAP. This is the first tag the robots will read, make sure it’s keyword rich, something you know a lot of people are searching for. (One of the ways you can test your key word phrases is by going to www.wordtracker.com and using the free service to see how popular searches are.)

5) You need an opt-in, something people can get off your website for free of high value to get leads and contacts, for me it’s my report, on our PT website it’s the free newsletter, building your list is mission critical. Always be developing your list and building your relationship with your list, just like I am doing with you each week. I gladly give you as much value as possible each week and hopefully at some point maybe we can do business together or I find a great product to tell you about hopefully you will consider buying it from me. For this you could use: www.icontact.com, www.aweber.com or www.1shoppingcart.com (to name a few) the first 2 are really simple, probably aweber is the best for simple, shoppingcart gives you the most options if you eventually want to sell online. (Selling online costs about $500 to setup and about $100/monthlyish)

6) Your website needs lots of content. Most of us start with a simple website that’s like, “hey here’s my website, now buy from me.” These kinds of websites get people’s attention for like 10 seconds and then they leave and never come back. For instance, why are you on the internet? If it’s not for Facebook it’s because you want to know something, the answer to a question. For your website to add to your business and create sales it needs to provide the answers. Add content (and ultimately value); teach your visitors something as chances are they came across you looking for answers not your services.

7) Facebook; fan pages are better than groups, something to do with the search engines, not to mention Faacebook has become the new word for procrastination, that’s where everyone is, go to the people. Every time you post something new on your website link it on your fan page and send the update to your fans under the edit page function. With a properly configured blog this can almost be entirely automated.

8) Offline, get client testimonials stick these on your window for people to read and then give complimentary businesses a discount coupon of some sort, something that seems really valuable to the customer but costs you next to nothing, the best items are consults or service trials (has to be more than 1 session though, create real value) these seem really valuable to the customer but have little physical cost.

These 8 things will easily create thousands of dollars in new sales, I could go on but I think I have given you enough to do.  🙂


Regain Control of Your Life, Insure Survivial, and Have Your Clients Excited About It!

Regain Control of Your Life, Insure Survivial, and Have Your Clients Excited About It!

Ever want to have a place of your own? This is how you build a financiable business

Ever want to have a place of your own? This is how you build a financiable business

This week is a simple raw how-to get it done item. By now you have heard me on multiple occasions discuss the value of monthly, reoccurring, electronic billing, or the industry term EFT. If your business is not using EFT or if you are not in the midst of setting this up I’m sorry but you are sitting in a sinking boat and your bucket has a hole in it.

Now maybe you are willing to buy into what I am saying and ready to try to make the transition. The first major roadblock you are going to face that will completely shake your confidence is…your clients. I know I didn’t even have to write that, you didn’t have to mention it to them, you instantly thought of it and the wall of resistance sprung up in your mind.

The simple truth is if you present it the right way your clients will not only not resist, they will thank you for it. Let me ask you a couple of things:

1)      Do you want more monthly bills? No, of course not, no one does.

2)      Do you like writing cheques? In fact do you even know where your cheque book is? Nope, I sure don’t.

3)      Do you like good your service? Duh.

4)      Do you think your clients would like more of your attention to their needs and goals? This is the easiest final exam ever isn’t it?

Ok here goes, if you are a personal trainer working on your own and you have more than 3 clients you are wasting a lot of time on paper work or at least thinking about things you don’t need to be. Most trainers (including myself back in the day) sell the notorious 10 session package. More often now I see the 24, 36 or whopping 72 session packages for $4998! What a deal. Point is these all suck, you and I both know that your client isn’t going to get anywhere with just 10 sessions and now every few weeks or month you have to: track their sessions, prepare invoicing, deliver paperwork to them, accept that they forgot payment that day, remind them next time, collect and process the payment, rinse and repeat. Or; if you figure the bigger bunches of sessions fix this problem you’re wrong, you still have to do it, just less often. Even worse you will miss out on piles of clients that can’t or won’t pay such a large sum up front, divided payments same problem.

The answer EFT, its better value, better service and as a free bonus ensures your survival and delivers your freedom.

You see the value for the customer is significant. Now they don’t ever have to stress about payments or remembering payment for you. More critical and valuable is no one wants to hire a trainer that is distracted by whether he remembered to invoice, collect payment or prepare statements. And no one wants a portion of their session tied up every couple of weeks for paperwork or collecting payments. So forget hiring an assistant that you can’t yet afford and automate the system. By moving to an EFT system you have effectively offered your clients more value and better service.

In addition you know have a tangible business with repeat and reoccurring income that shows steady cash flow. If you ever want to open a studio, gym or for that matter think that one day you might sell your business this is critical. Steady cash flow also allows for monthly budgeting and the ability to work on your terms, take holidays and generally take back control of your life. EFT is essential to your success and that is how it needs to be presented to your clients.

A sample script is as follows:

“Jane, I’ve recently restructured my services to provide you more value and better service. Because I know you are committed to improving your health and fitness with this lifestyle I have stopped selling sessions and just bill my clients monthly for their services.”

“This whole process can be completed automated so you will never have to worry about remembering your cheque book and I can be much more focused on you and your goals because I won’t have to prepare invoicing, collect and process payments and generally spend so many hours on things not related to your fitness and nutritional programming.”

All you need to do further is re-assure them with a simple cancellation process/policy and assure them that missed sessions with proper notice will also be credited to them accordingly. But we can discuss that in a future post.


Why do you do what you do?

Why do you do what you do?

Developing effective relationships will do more than improve your business.

Developing effective relationships will do more than improve your business.

Guest post by: Mr. X

In a job situation, most people think the easy answer is “the money”.  When you think about your work, I guarantee that your pay check is not the first image that pops into your mind.  If you are in a positive work situation, it is the people that jump to mind.  If it is a negative situation, it is usually the people as well.   You spend most of your life surrounded by people.  Have you taken an account of those relationships that are most important to you and do you invest the time required to grow those relationships?

So the first step to building a great relationship is time.  You build great relationships over time. Who are your 3 best friends?  How much time do you spend with them in a month?  How do you stay in contact with those best friends?  Is it only by email?  Do you get together for coffee?  Do you get your families together regularly?  Different means of contact and the amount of time invested makes the relationship stronger and more memorable.

Do opposites really attract?  There are many people who believe that opposites attract.  I would want to look closer at the attraction because you usually see a quality in someone that you have as well or that you want to develop.  If you read many self improvement books, you will know there are 4 main personality traits.  We have all seen the successful marriage of the loud obnoxious person with the shy quiet one.   You point to this as proof that opposites attract.  If you dig a little deeper though, you will find the core values of those two people are similar.

Have you heard about the story of the horse pull competition?  The two top horses each pulled 2000lbs, individually.  The farmers decided to see if they hooked them together, how much could they pull?  Bets were places between 4000 and 6000lbs but everyone was surprised when together the team of 2 pulled 11,000lbs.   We will naturally cultivate relationships with people going in the same direction and  have similar core values.  This will add to your life and your energy.  We enjoy investing time with people who are like us.  When you are with people you want to enjoy a deeper, more profitable relationship with reinforce your similarities when you invest time together.  It might be hobbies, family, culture, interests, or career.   The core principle of building relationships is we like those who make us feel good about ourselves.   Great relationships take time, effort and consistency.

Use this small thought experiment to see how important relationships are:

What if because you took the time to read this article, I would build your dream home for you and pay for it.  Imagine your dream home.  What would it look like?  Where would it be?  Imagine the parties you could throw with your friends.  However, the only catch is that you are the only one allowed through the front door.  Do you still want the dream home?  I know I wouldn’t but why not have it all.  To be honest, the people in my life, the mentors I have chosen, have built solid relationships with people in life where they want to be.  They have the fruit on the tree.  I would trade everything I have materially for more time with these people because when you have those relationships, it will not be long before your dreams come true.  I encourage you to develop a vision for the most important relationships in your life starting in these 3 areas: spiritual, family and business.